New Dawn Fades

Wednesday, 26 November 08, 09:16 AM · Comments(0)

We're there.

A strange game at the Grove last night. Arsenal's cause not helped by a side shorn of pace and width and some inexperience leading to the wrong pass being made in promising positions, much of last night was Matchday 4: The Groundhog Day version. However, the little bit of luck going went Arsenal's way. For once. Nevertheless, it still took a moment of absolute genius from the new captain to put Bendtner away. Bendtner's finish on the run matched Cesc's raking pass and the fixture that has a burgeoning history of crucial late goals had another one for the collection as we pass into the knock stages of the Champions League.

It was followed almost immediately by hilarious sending off for one of the throwbacks on display for Kyiv last night. Having rolled around on the ground earlier in the second half; when already on a yellow card, then bounced back up as soon as Kyiv got the ball back, incensed by the award of the goal- which had come from a drop ball situation, the idiot went and tried to push the referee out of the way as Kyiv went to take a free kick. A karmic payback was instant, at least he would have had first use of the showers.

Speaking of karmic payback, some people have been wondering this morning whether the same people who's only response to the introduction of Nick Bendtner was to wolf whistle at his rather fetching Nikes were the same people that vacated the stadium, as usual, 10 minutes early and so missed the same player's coup de grace. It's worth wondering about, I think. Perhaps for those people, it might even be worth thinking about.

Happily, no such disrespect was afforded the deposed skipper, who had a mixed bag last night. He went down early; after a seemingly innocuous collision with Carlos Vela (which prompted a rousing chorus from blocks 5&6- I assume- of "Billy Gallas is our mate"), nearly gifted Kyiv a goal when having dispossessed Bangoura, he promptly gave the ball back to him and Bangoura hit the post and then before the half was out, he knocked the ball home from a corner, but was flagged offside. The second half saw him block what the commentators claimed was a goalbound shot from van Persie, it looked to me like the ball was going wide and then made a magnificent tackle in our penalty area. His evening finished at the full time whistle, when he clapped the fans in the direction of the tunnel and quickly departed the scene.

Aside from that, I thought Carlos Vela showed why he was brought into the attack, he seemed very happy to work the channels, showed good intelligence and composure when on the ball and I think Arsène should have no fears about deploying him in future first team action.

The final words on Kyiv, though, must be for Cesc Fabregas, pictured during the first half trying to organise the team, I thought he played well. Not brilliantly but at the heart of most of the good work done last night. His quick thinking to see and react to the opportunity that developed in the 87th minute was bettered only by the way he delivered the ball. It is my hope that we see a bit more of that as the season progresses.

In other news, finally, Arsenal have appointed Ivan Gazidis as the new CEO. He joins us on January 1st. Just in time for the transfer window.

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